Rebecca Spit Earthcache EarthCache
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Welcome to the beautiful little park of Rebecca Spit Provincial Park on Quadra Island!! I have been coming to this park now for over 20 years and I want to share some of the things I have learned about this piece of land with my fellow geocachers.
For many years now archaeologists have believed that in the late 18th century the aboriginal peoples who have lived in these lands for thousands of years fought a major battle. From what archaeologists have been able to determine was that the battle was between the Coast Salish and the Kwagiulth tribes. The only visible evidence however that still remains today of the rumored extensive Coast Salish fortifications that were built for this battle are the various trenches that are both easily spotted and very well hidden in the Rebecca Spit Provincial Park.
In 1864, in honor of a British trading schooner, the spit was named. For most of its history the spit was part of the We Wai Kai Native Reserve but with the out break of WW1 the federal government made a trade with the natives with some land on Vancouver Island so they could have this spit. The reason why they wanted this piece of land was because it was deemed to be very useful for military observational purposes. After the war the land was given over to the Clandening family and they allowed the locals to walk along its breath taking beaches. There was however an earthquake that occurred in 1946 which destroyed over 1/3 of the land. Despite this natural disaster in 1959 the provincial government took ownership of the land and turned it into a provincial park.
A spit, or a sandspit, is a depositional landform that can be found off coasts all over the world. At one end, the spit connects to the land, while at the other far end it exist in open water. A spit is a type of a sand bar, or beach, that develops where a re-entrant occurs, such as at cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift. Longshore drift (also called littoral drift) occurs when waves meet the beach at an oblique angle and are backwashing in a perpendicular angle to the shore. As a result of this tidal angle the moving sediment gets pulled down the beach in a visible zigzag pattern. Longshore drifting is complemented by longshore currents, which transport sediment through the water alongside the beach. These currents are set in motion by the same oblique angle of entering waves that causes littoral drift and transport sediment in a similar process.
Where the direction of the shore inland reenters, or changes direction such as at a headland (an area of land adjacent to water on three sides), the longshore current spreads out or dissipates all together. Once the longshore current is no longer able to carry the full load much of the sediment that is being carried is therefore dropped. This is also known as deposition. This submerged bar of sediment allows littoral drift to continue to transport in the direction the waves are breaking, forming an above-water spit. A littoral drift or zone extends from the high water mark (as far as the tide reaches before it begins to drop down), which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged or as far out as the tide usually goes before it starts coming back in again. This zone will always include the intertidal zone. Without this complementary process of littoral drift, the bar would not build above the surface of the waves becoming a spit and would instead be leveled off underwater.
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Spits occur when longshore drift reaches a section of headland where the turn is greater than 30 degrees. They will continue out into the sea until water pressure (such as from a river) becomes too much to allow the sand to deposit. The spit may then be grown upon and become stable and often fertile. A spit may be considered a specialized form of a shoal. As spits grow, the water behind them is sheltered from wind and waves, and a salt marsh is likely to develop.
Wave refraction (splitting in different directions) can occur at the end of a spit, carrying sediment around the end to form a hook or recurved spit. Wave refraction in multiple directions will cause a complex spit to form. Incoming waves that come in a direction other than obliquely along the spit will halt the growth of the spit, shorten it or eventually destroy it entirely.
The sediments that make up spits come from a variety of sources including rivers and eroding bluffs, and changes there can have a large impact on spits and other coastal landforms. Activities such as logging and farming upstream can increase the sediment load of rivers, which may hurt the intertidal environments around spits by smothering delicate habitat. Roads or bulkheads built along bluffs can drastically reduce the volume of sediment eroded, so that not enough material is being pushed along to maintain a given spit.
If the supply of sediment is interrupted the sand at the neck (landward side) of the spit may be moved towards the head, eventually creating an island. If the supply isn't interrupted, and the spit isn't breached by the sea (or, if across an estuary, the river) the spit may become a bar, with both ends joined to land, and form a lagoon behind the bar. If an island lies offshore near where the coast changes direction, and the spit continues to grow until it connects the island to the mainland, it is then called a tombolo.
The end of a spit attached to land is called the proximal end, and the end jutting out into water is called the distal end.
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To Get Credit for the Earthcache YOU MUST EMAIL ME THE ANSWERS FOR QUESTIONS # 3 - 5. If I don't get an email from you then I am afraid that I must delete your find as this is the only for me to prove that you were actually there and you met the finding requirements. The questions that you need to answer for this Earthcache are:
1. Take a picture of you standing at ground zero with your GPS
2. Take one scenic picture of your choice anywhere along the Rebecca Spit trail
3. Identify at least two features that are visible on the shoreline that will support the longshore drift process.
4. Provide at least one possible rational reason as to why the trees, generally speaking, are very short and don’t have a large trunk.
5. Provide at least one possible rational reason why you think on the west side of the spit the water can be very calm and whereas on the east side it can be very rough.
Also this is an Earthcache so there is no container, or small item that you will be looking for. Once you have reached GZ all you need is your GPS, Camera, and well...... your brain.
Otherwise Happy Ceocaching!
p.s. Congratulations to The_Pollywog for getting the FTF!!!!!!!
I am a proud:
I am a proud
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gehfg jung lbhe rlrf pna frr